Federal Judge Limits DOGE Access to ‘Sensitive’ Treasury Department System Records – One America News Network
OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
12:23 PM – Thursday, February 6, 2025
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) faced a temporary restraining order from a federal judge on Thursday, denying its access to key Treasury Department payment data amidst uproar from members of the Democrat Party this week.
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Additionally, the Justice Department notified the judge on Wednesday that Elon Musk, who leads DOGE, does not possess direct access to sensitive data regarding millions of Americans stored in the Treasury Department’s payment systems, as reported by WUSA9, based in Washington, D.C., affiliated with CBS.
In a temporary restraining order, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly emphasized that Treasury staff “will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained within the [Treasury] Bureau of Fiscal Service.”
Judge Kollar-Kotelly is a senior federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, appointed by former Democrat President Bill Clinton in 1997, according to BallotPedia.
Each year, the Treasury Department oversees approximately $6 trillion across various programs, including Social Security, Medicare, federal employee salaries, grant allocations, payments to government contractors, and tax reimbursements.
About 90% of federal payments are processed through this service.
This ruling comes on the heels of a proposed court order from the Justice Department agreeing to grant read-only access to two “special government employees” within DOGE to review sensitive documents. On Thursday, Judge Kollar-Kotelly granted a brief order approving this motion.
The lawsuit arose from a government-wide evaluation led by DOGE, which faced opposition from some government employee unions critical of Musk’s involvement and their access to these materials.
The lawsuit claimed that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent improperly granted Musk’s team access, with some Democrat officials alleging that this could have potentially unveiled private financial details to “unauthorized” parties.
Under the order, Musk’s associates, Tom Krause, CEO of Cloud Software Group, and Marko Elez, a former employee at one of Musk’s enterprises, will be allowed limited access to the Treasury’s Fiscal Service, but they are prohibited from modifying the program.
Both Krause and Elez are designated as “Special Government Employee[s] in the Department of the Treasury.”
On Thursday, Musk took to X to assert: “Billions of taxpayer dollars to known FRAUDULENT entities are STILL being APPROVED by Treasury.
“This needs to STOP NOW!” he added.
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